Antedating "the yips" OED 1963-->1943 :: Fwd: "yips" - Word of the Day from the OED

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:47 AM -0400 10/2/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>FWIW, I've encountered this expression only in golfing contexts or in
>writings by self-confessed golfers.
>
>Unlike the willies, the jumps, the heebie jeebies, the screaming meemies,
>etc.
>
>JL

I could have sworn that it was also applied to baseball players, e.g.
to Steve Sax, a second baseman who suddenly for no obvious reason
began to find it impossible to make the short throw to first.  I'll
try googling "Steve Sax" + "the yips"...yup, 270 hits, including
references to another Yankees second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, and
various other non-golfers.  I think it's significant that it usually
(always?) comes up in a baseball context either for a second baseman
(who makes the shortest throw to first, as opposed to shortstops or
third-basemen) or the catcher tossing the ball back to the pitcher.
A catcher who just can't throw base stealers out at second just has a
bad arm, not the yips.  And it's often "a case of the yips", which
comes on suddenly and without explanation like cases of other
afflictions.

LH

>
>On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:49 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Antedating "the yips" OED 1963-->1943 :: Fwd: "yips" -
>>  Word
>>               of the Day from the OED
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>   Many thanks to Garson for completing this thread. I left it hanging by
>>  not following up with periodicals and he dutifully explored that option,
>>  coming up with some nice quotations.
>>
>>  It seems rather definitive from all this that even if Tommy Armour did
>>  not originate the expression, he certainly was a focal point for it, at
>>  least in golf. The expression may or may not have existed separately
>>  from golf, but it would not be surprising if other golfers picked it up
>>  from Armour. Not only Sneed, but also Bobby Jones, in his golfing
>>  biography, used the expression. I believe, Jones's book was listed by GB
>>  under 1960.
>>
>>  OK, here it is:
>>
>>  http://bit.ly/aF00yh
>>  > It is a manner of freezing and is well known to tournament players as
>>  > a form of the "yips.
>>
>>  [WorldCat lists it as the 1st ed., Doubleday, although it's been
>>  reprinted well into the 1990s.]
>>
>>      VS-)
>>
>>  On 10/1/2010 4:11 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>  > Here is a cite a couple years earlier written by the same sports
>>  > columnist. Once again the golfer Tommy Armour is featured. The
>>  > journalist, Grantland Rice, has placed the term yips within quotes:
>>  >
>>  > Cite: 1936 January 14, The (Baltimore) Sun, "Hagen Predicts Faster
>>  > Golf This Year Than Ever Before" by Grantland Rice, Page 11, Column 7,
>>  > Baltimore, Maryland. (ProQuest)
>>  >
>>  >                        "Yips" Got Him
>>  >
>>  > It was Tommy Armour who said that golf would be the greatest
>>  > competition in the world - the finest of all sporting tests - if it
>>  > wasn't for putting.
>>  >
>>  > "When those nerves in the wrists begin to hop," Armour said, "there is
>>  > nothing to be done about it not even by a Hagen or a Jones, a Vardon
>>  > or anyone else. When the 'yips' set in you are gone. Bobby Jones never
>>  > knew what the 'yips' were until his Augusta tournaments and then he
>>  > told me he would just as soon be nicked by a rattlesnake."
>>  >
>>  > Garson
>>  >
>>  > Garson O'Toole wrote
>>  >> Thanks for posting about this interesting word-of-the-day, Victor.
>>  >> Based on the great cites that you found I formulated a query and was
>>  >> able to push the date back a bit further. In the 1938 newspaper
>>  >> article below the professional golfer Tommy Armour is interviewed and
>>  >
>>
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